


Emily and Artenix

by Snowblazehollyleafstar



Category: Emily of New Moon - L. M. Montgomery, His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-03
Updated: 2018-11-12
Packaged: 2019-08-17 01:14:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16506431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snowblazehollyleafstar/pseuds/Snowblazehollyleafstar
Summary: Exactly what it says on the tin: Emily of New Moon, but with daemons. Has not been entirely abandoned, despite appearances. I will get around to updating some time. Just not today.





	1. The House in the Hollow

Emily and Artenix ran down the hill, feet barely touching the ground. Artenix was in the form of a cheetah, and he dashed ahead of her on his powerful legs.

“Wait for me,” said Emily as they dashed towards the spruce barrens, “Don’t tug so!”

Artenix kept running, but slowed his pace so she could catch up. Together they hurtled down the hill, before skidding to a halt at the edge of the spruce.

For a few moments they stood, side by side, panting. Artenix changed into a pine-marten, better suited to running in the trees. Emily’s flushed cheeks stood out against her pale face.

Then they began to play in earnest, chasing the Wind Woman amongst the trees. One moment she was between two entwined trees, but when they approached from different sides she was whistling in the tops of the tallest trees.

Then, just like that, it seemed like she was gone altogether. Girl and dæmon stood together, looking up at the pink-green sky and the perfect new moon.

Emily looked up at the beautiful view with clasped hands, Artenix changing into a fox cub out of reverence for the painful beauty.

“We have to write about this,” she said quietly, not wanting to disturb the stillness of the night. “Let’s go back.”

At that moment Emily felt “the flash”. Artenix became a black cat with green eyes, as he always did when the flash came.

They stood still for a moment, Emily filled with a glorious happiness she could barely contain, and then set off back up the hill, running until they were out of breath and then walking.

As they did so, Emily thought out the description they were about to write and felt the magic in her words.

Ellen Greene was waiting for her on the doorstep, her bulldog-dæmon Tiran just behind her. Emily was so filled with joy that she hugged Ellen’s knees.

Ellen sighed ponderously, and then said:

“Do you know that your pa has only a week or two more to live?”


	2. A Watch in the Night

Artenix changed instantly, his black cat-form shifting into a white ermine. Emily didn’t move, or speak, but all the colour drained out of her face and her pupils dilated until her eyes were almost completely black.

Ellen looked slightly taken aback, but began to speak anyway. Emily didn’t hear much of it, but she hated what she did hear: it was high time her father had told her, she decided to do the right thing, Emily shouldn’t look like that…

When Ellen tried to take Emily’s hand, Emily screamed a little and dashed past her into the house and up the stairs.

Emily dashed to her little bed, where she found her grey cat Mike, lying on it. She flung herself onto the bed and wrapped her arms around him. She didn’t cry, but just stared. Artenix climbed up her arm and wrapped himself round her neck in a vain effort to comfort her.

“If I was God, I wouldn’t let things like this happen,” she said.

“Emily,” said Artenix with a shocked gasp, “that’s an awfully wicked thing to say!”

“I don’t care,” snapped Emily. “Maybe if I’m wicked enough God will strike me down and then I can stay with father.”

There was a long silence, during which Mike grew tired of staying still and squirmed away.

“Could we write about it?” asked Artenix quietly.

“No,” said Emily. “It wouldn’t work. It’s just – too – big for that.” After another pause, she murmured: “The flash will never come again – it can’t!”

“We have to be in bed when father comes up,” said Artenix. “We can’t let him know we know.”

Emily nodded. She changed as quickly as she could, despite her cold fingers, and then lay back down on the bed.

He entered slowly, unnaturally slowly, his crow-dæmon Sarlissa perched on his shoulder.

“Are you asleep?” asked Douglas Starr.

“No,” whispered Emily.

“Are you sleepy?”

“No – not sleepy.”

“Then we’ll have our talk, honey,” said father, Sarlissa shifting restlessly from foot to foot. “I can’t sleep either. I want to tell you something.”

“Oh – I know it!” burst out Emily, Artenix copying Sarlissa’s crow-form. “Oh, father, I know it! Ellen told me!”

“The old fool,” he said under his breath, “the fat old fool!”

“It isn’t true, is it, father?” asked Emily in a tiny voice.

Father asked Emily to sit on his knee in the old way. Emily did so, Artenix becoming a butterfly as he’d used to despite Emily’s complete lack of happiness.

“Little beloved Emilykin,” said Douglas Starr, “it is quite true. I meant to tell you tonight. And now that old absurdity of an Ellen has told you brutally and hurt you dreadfully.”  
“Father,” said Emily, fighting down something that wanted to choke her, “I can’t – I can’t bear it!”

“You can and you will, Emily. You will succeed where I failed, Emily. I’ve done what I could for you. Emily, do you remember your mother?”

“Just a little – here and there – like lovely bits of dreams.” Artenix became a red fox, like Juliet Starr’s dæmon, like he always did when they thought about their mother.

He told her about Juliet. He told her how she had died when Emily was only four. How they had met when he was working on a newspaper and she was training to be a teacher. How her mother’s family, the Murrays, had come out on a ship in 1790 and named their farm after the ship. New Moon.

How the Murrays were famously proud, how others called them “the chosen people”. How only Elizabeth and Laura, Emily’s aunts, lived there now, with their cousin Jimmy. How they’d never married, how people said it was because there was no-one good enough for a Murray.

How Juliet had only been the half-sister of Elizabeth and Laura, by Archibald Murray’s second wife. How the Murrays had been absolutely furious when Douglas and Juliet had fallen in love. How wonderfully happy they had all been. How Emily was the child of that happiness.

He refused to talk about Juliet’s death, but spoke of how the Murrays had all come to her funeral despite their estrangement from Juliet. 

How the Murrays would be the ones who would look after Emily when he was dead.

By the time he had finished, Emily felt all the bitterness had gone out of her sorrow. She soon fell asleep.

Despite his weakening arms, Douglas Starr laid her down on her bed. 

“She will love deeply – she will suffer terribly – she will have glorious moments to compensate – as I have. As her mother’s people deal with her, so may God deal with them,” he murmured brokenly. Sarlissa flew down to perch next to Artenix, and ran her beak gently along his white ermine-fur.


End file.
